Becoming a landlord is a lot like being pregnant: When you make your announcement, everyone wants to tell you their horror stories.

There was the aunt who had not one, but two tenants die unexpectedly during her first year as a landlord. Or, my personal nightmare, the neighbor whose tenants let their pet snakes roam freely about the house. Then, there's the run-of-the-mill disaster stories about tenants who trashed a home or didn't pay their rent.

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